Helicopter carrying India's military chief crashes
A helicopter carrying India's defense chief General Bipin Rawat crashed in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, the air force said.
The 63-year-old chief of defense staff was travelling in a Russian-made Mi-17V5 chopper that "met with an accident today near Coonoor, Tamil Nadu", the Indian Air Force said on Twitter.
Rawat is India's first chief of defense staff, a position that the Indian government established in 2019, and is seen as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He and his wife were on board along with other officers and were headed to the Defense Services Staff College, a senior army officer told AFP.
Videos broadcast on Indian news channels showed a fiery wreck at the crash site in a dense forested area near the college in Nilgiris district.
Media reports said the chopper took off from Sulur Air Force Station on Wednesday afternoon and that some passengers had been taken to hospitals for treatment.
Rawat comes from a military family with several generations having served in the Indian armed forces.
The general, who has four decades of service behind him, has commanded forces in Indian-administered Kashmir and along the Line of Actual Control bordering China.
He is credited with reducing insurgency on India's northeastern frontier and supervised a cross-border counter-insurgency operation into neighboring Myanmar.
The air force said an inquiry was underway into the accident.
(Source: AFP)
Pezeshkian says seeking to prevent conflict expansion as Modi blasts Israel’s genocide
Putin: BRICS, not the West, will drive global economic prosperity
Party opposed to India’s stripping Kashmir’s autonomy wins key vote
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
Iranian satellites launched into space as private sector debuts in space industry
VIDEO | Iran, Azerbaijan conduct joint maritime rescue operations
VIDEO | Yemen’s Red Sea divide: Naval forces block Israeli-linked ships in strategic ‘parting of the water’
VIDEO | Southern Gaza: Israel’s facade for famine and suffering
VIDEO | IOF hampering humanitarian aid
VIDEO | Sharmahd: Justice Done
Iran repeatedly warned Israel not to test its will: FM
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
